- Hardcover: 264 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press (15 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0300097867
- ISBN-13: 978-0300097863
- Product Dimensions: 26.2 x 26.2 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,643,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
An exploration of the outstanding work of four Swiss engineers and their teachers who form an impressive group of structural artists in the 20th century: Wilhelm Ritter (1847-1906); Robert Maillart (1872-1940); Othmar Ammann (1879-1965); Pierre Lardy (1902-1956); Heinz Isler (b. 1926); and Christian Menn (b. 1927). David Billington, who has written widely on these engineers, argues that it is important to consider them as artists, for aesthetics played a major role in their design philosophy. He explains that their shared approach to design was developed while they attended the Federal Technological Institute in Zurich: Maillart and Amman studied with Ritter there, and Isler and Menn studied under Lardy. Billington focuses on the engineers' artistic approach to bridge design and construction, and he discusses their impressive individual contributions to structural engineering. This volume features many newly commissioned photographs, including images of important new structures such as the Charles River Bridge in Boston, completed by Menn in 2002.
About the Author
David P. Billington is Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of the Programme in Architecture and Engineering at Princeton University.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Rarely does a new art form emerge to challenge old ideas about artistic boundaries. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Rarely does a new art form emerge to challenge old ideas about artistic boundaries. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
"The Art of Structural Design" isn't the first book to cover these four heroic Swiss structural engineers. Billington has written previously and extensively on Maillart, and there are good books available on Menn and Isler. What makes it remarkable, however, is the particular angle it takes.
The meat of the book discusses these engineers' major works, from Ammann's George Washington Bridge through to Menn's Sunniberg masterpiece. But throughout, the focus isn't just on what brought these structures to the level of art, but on how the engineers' philosophies blended technology and aesthetics, and on where those philosophies came from in the first place.
There are two chapters on their teachers, Wilhelm Ritter and Pierre Lardy, which make clear the key influence that a good educator can have. My experience is that such people are few and far between, and this is to engineering's great loss. Billington's insightful analysis extends to poring over old lecture notes, and I'd think few intelligent engineering students wouldn't wish that those were their own notes.
As such, this is a book that could do with being far more widely read, both by engineering students and educators. It's well-illustrated throughout, and provides engineers with the aspirational figures so often lacking. Although the technical content is fairly light (with the general reader in mind), there's enough to see how only a synthesis of analytical depth with design flair can lead to the very best structural work.
The meat of the book discusses these engineers' major works, from Ammann's George Washington Bridge through to Menn's Sunniberg masterpiece. But throughout, the focus isn't just on what brought these structures to the level of art, but on how the engineers' philosophies blended technology and aesthetics, and on where those philosophies came from in the first place.
There are two chapters on their teachers, Wilhelm Ritter and Pierre Lardy, which make clear the key influence that a good educator can have. My experience is that such people are few and far between, and this is to engineering's great loss. Billington's insightful analysis extends to poring over old lecture notes, and I'd think few intelligent engineering students wouldn't wish that those were their own notes.
As such, this is a book that could do with being far more widely read, both by engineering students and educators. It's well-illustrated throughout, and provides engineers with the aspirational figures so often lacking. Although the technical content is fairly light (with the general reader in mind), there's enough to see how only a synthesis of analytical depth with design flair can lead to the very best structural work.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Nice pictures... but not really any technical data...
16 Oct 2005
Format:Hardcover
DISCLAIMER: I'm not a kid, I'm just too lazy to bother making an account just to write a review. I mean, come on, that's what this "kid's review" option is really for, isn't it?
THE REVIEW:
This book contains many good photographs of notable bridges designed by Swiss structural engineers, but it's a tad light on providing any technical data... overall, this book's good for looking at bridges from an artistic, design-oriented point of view, but isn't particularly useful if you're, say, trying to DRAW A SCALE DIAGRAM OF A BRIDGE IN THIS BOOK AND YOU WERE TOLD TO BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING COURSE because it lacks concrete facts about spans, drapes, or other distances that would be useful. Not a bad book at all; quite good, actually, but not very useful for technical analysis. That salginatobel bridge pops up all over the place, eh?
THE REVIEW:
This book contains many good photographs of notable bridges designed by Swiss structural engineers, but it's a tad light on providing any technical data... overall, this book's good for looking at bridges from an artistic, design-oriented point of view, but isn't particularly useful if you're, say, trying to DRAW A SCALE DIAGRAM OF A BRIDGE IN THIS BOOK AND YOU WERE TOLD TO BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING COURSE because it lacks concrete facts about spans, drapes, or other distances that would be useful. Not a bad book at all; quite good, actually, but not very useful for technical analysis. That salginatobel bridge pops up all over the place, eh?
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